New Arizona corporations and limited liability companies may not have to publish if a freshman legislator gets his way.

Currently all Arizona corporations and limited liability companies are required to publish their articles (a notice for LLCs) in a newspaper of general circulation, which is approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), for three consecutive periods (i.e. days for dailies & weeks for weeklies). An affidavit of publishing, proving that state publishing requirements have been met, must then be filed with the ACC.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert said this mandate is an unnecessary financial burden on small businesses. He also cited that most states do not require publishing of new filings, making Arizona less competitive to attracting new businesses here.

Although, the cost of publishing depends on the length of articles and the paper doing the publishing, costs can range from $70 to $500 or more. LLCs can publish a shorter "notice" rather than the actual articles.

Biggs called the legal requirement, "the transfer of wealth from a large number of people who are doing business to a small number of people who own newspapers.The publication requirement has essentially little, if any, usefulness."

In a similar story in Capitol Media Services, John Fearing, Executive Director of the Arizona Newspapers Association understandably defended the practice: "Articles published in a newspaper become part of a permanent record, a record separate from the government."

Further, he said, "Arizona residents should have access to printed copies of the articles of incorporation for each new company in their county." This service is currently not available by the ACC. However, he argued, publishing notices over a month show exactly which corporations were formed in that county for the month. The commission's records are organized by name and not by new corporation filings or by county.

Corporations & LLCs formed by SmallBiZ.com currently include the cost of publishing.